Assess the view that there has been an increase in the diversity of family types in Britain since 1950s.

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Introduction

Assess the view that there has been an increase in the diversity of family types in Britain since 1950s. The family has been seen as the foundation of society, which has been regarded as the most basic unit of social group,and one carries out vital tasks for the society. As a fully industrialised society, British families take a variety of forms, all of which can be identified as the diversity of family types. It is argued that there has been an decline inthe conventional family and family diversity has been increased in Britain since 1950s. Actually, the traditional family has undergone numerouse changes in recent decades. According to George Murduck, two particular types of family, the nuclear family and extended family were the main types of family existed in Britain before the 1950s. Nuclear family is based around a husband and wife and young children. It is claimed that the nuclear family can be found in every society and is the basic family unit. Exteneded family can be defined as there is a husband and wife with other adult relations such as grandparents and uncles, and young children whithin the family. ...read more.

Middle

step family, and some may have one or more children of their own.Such families were on the increase because of the rise of divorce, and some people may be concern for their children. However, this often creates two homes for the children, by this I mean that the children may find that they had been put into two directions, and the relationships between the step-parent and the children may be tense. Besides, the childless or child-free families were uncommon but increased. A childless family is simply a group of people who, for what ever reasons, have never had children. By 1990's marriage were more than 30 per cent childless. The increase of this type of family was because of that more and more couples decided not to have children. Most of them had thought long and hard about the parenthood and for various reasons, many felt that it really was not right for them. For instance, some families choose not to have children because they concentrate on their careers, or like traveling. In adition, more family types were existed. These include: Cohabiting families, where unmarried men and women may or may not to be rising children; Gay and lesbian families, which is headed by gays or lesbians, children may not be included; Even people who are unable to have children themselves, so they adopt or foster children. ...read more.

Conclusion

When their child is born, the family changes into a nuclear family. Finally, the fifth factor identified by the Rapoports as the cause of family diversity is cohort diversity. This means the stage at which the family has experienced through periods of time. The experience of families in different times may be different. In the 1950s, adult children can find a job easily and then leave home due to the high employment. In the 1980s, the rate of employment fall and therefore the adult children could not get job that easily, so they had to stay in the family longer. In conclusion, as Britain is such a multi-cultural society with different religions, class and sexualities there is a great variety of family types. Although the nuclear family and extended family are still around and popular in modern Britain, the newly apeared types of family also grow fast after the Industrial Revolution. Diversity of family type began to increase sharply since the 1950s. Nowadays, most people accept the diverse family structures. Many different types of family are seen as normal and common. It is believed that the family types are uncertain and dynamic, they have been changed and will continue to change with time and contemporary idea. Source: University of Missouri Outreach and Extension ...read more.

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